Hi, I have never posted here but I have been reading for quite a while. I just recently purchased two series3 Tivos and am going to upgrade the storage. This is where I came up with my question about the Antec enclosure with correct cable. Is there a benefit to using the SIIG cable with this enclosure, or is there no difference using it or the cable included with the Antec enclosure?

I used the stock cable for three months without a problem. Then the unit was moved while house cleaning and nothing but reboots until I replaced the cable with the SIIG. It's been eleven months now since the swap and many more cleanings without any problems. If you can set it and forget it the stock cable supplied by Antec will be fine. Otherwise, it's cheap insurance to get the SIIG.

Like Moxie I (and many others) have used the cable that came with the Antec enclosure. I bought ours in March of '07 or so and didn't have any problems. There was a short period (about this time last year) where several people ran into problems with the cable Antec was shipping. IMO they were overwhelmed with orders, couldn't fill them fast enough and went with a cheap cable for a while. That seemed to have cleared up by last fall. IIRC there haven't been any issues since then. The SIIG cables have never had a complaint AFAIK and are a good inexpensive backup JIC.

Excellent! Now...any Series3 pioneers willing to give the new WD WD10EACS-00D6B0 hard drive a try as an internal upgrade out there? (Install per the normal instructions on the first post of this sticky or WinMFS and try a menu restart to see if it works?) Hmmmm?

Unfortunately I can't help assay any fears of compatibility with a Series 3, but I did just receive one of these drives that I plan to put into my TiVo HD as an internal drive replacement. I'll be attempting the upgrade tonight and will report back on how it goes.

I realize that the WD10EACS has been reported (by most users, anyway) to work fine in a TiVo HD, but as the 00D6B0 is a new revision, I figure my experience may be valuable.

Unfortunately I can't help assay any fears of compatibility with a Series 3, but I did just receive one of these drives that I plan to put into my TiVo HD as an internal drive replacement. I'll be attempting the upgrade tonight and will report back on how it goes.

I realize that the WD10EACS has been reported (by most users, anyway) to work fine in a TiVo HD, but as the 00D6B0 is a new revision, I figure my experience may be valuable.

If I may ask, where did you get it? Did you know which version you would be getting beforehand? If so, how?

Update: Got the WD10EACS-00D6B0 installed in the TiVo HD and everything looks good. System Information reports 144 HD hours and 1326 SD hours (I supersized the original drive before running MFScopy). It's also too quiet for me to hear anything -- the cooling fan in my AV receiver is louder than any noise the TiVo might be making.

CableCARD settings were carried over without incident and I had my full channel lineup about 10-20 seconds after initial boot. My recordings from the original disk copied over fine and are perfectly playable.

To celebrate the newfound space, I just scheduled 5 hours worth of Olympic opening ceremonies in HD.

Tomorrow I should run a soft reboot test to make sure that won't cause any problems.

Edit: Soft reboot works fine, no issues.

Last night at 4:30 a.m. I noticed that in a completely dead-silent house, I can hear a tiny little high-pitched seek noise from the new drive. During the day it's inaudible.

I just got a message on my Series 3 that Seagate FreeAgent Pro is not supported and is known to cause problems. I have two of them on two series 3 (one 750GB and one 1TB) and have not had a problem for over 1 year on the 750 GB and 6 months on the 1 TB.

Has anyone gotten any messages in regard to other third party drives from TiVo?

Interesting! The message went out of its way to say it is known to cause problems? Did this message coincide with the 9.4 system update?

No, I have not gotten 9.4. I think it might be coincidental. but maybe 9.4 is more sensitive to odd brand drives?
It did specifically say that Seagate Freeagent is known to cause problems (although I have not had any).

I noticed earlier in the thread about Seagate external disks coming out designed for DVRs. Maybe TiVo has made a deal with Seagate and Seagate told them the Freeagent will not work on a DVR?

I just got a message on my Series 3 that Seagate FreeAgent Pro is not supported and is known to cause problems. I have two of them on two series 3 (one 750GB and one 1TB) and have not had a problem for over 1 year on the 750 GB and 6 months on the 1 TB.

Has anyone gotten any messages in regard to other third party drives from TiVo?

Wow! Big Brother is alive and well! That is indeed interesting that they singled out your eSATA drive(s). Did the message show up on both of your TiVo's or just one...and if just one, was it the one with the 750GB or the 1TB? Did you happen to keep the message and can you post a screen shot?

Initially there were a number of reports of problems with FAP's but IIRC they mostly boiled down to the supplied eSATA cable issues (bad connectors), not so much the drives themselves (although a few failed...overheating I think). Did you use the stock eSATA cable or one of those recommended like the SIIG?

In any case, it's surprising, kind of alarming in my book, that TiVo is sending out warnings for specific drives. Makes you wonder if they are just doing a little CYA or if it's an ominous sign...something darker this way comes?

I can confirm there are real problems with the newer software and at least some of the Freeagent Pro drives. I have had a LOT of them (intermittent freezes, pixelation, macroblocking, and spontaneous reboots), and I have seen reports from several other users experiencing similar problems with the same drives. The problems are not continuous, and they seem to only happen on HD recordings. You never know when you will see them.

I have had my Freeagent Pro for over a year with no problems until recently. I am looking for a replacement now. Good luck.

I can confirm there are real problems with the newer software and at least some of the Freeagent Pro drives. I have had a LOT of them (intermittent freezes, pixelation, macroblocking, and spontaneous reboots), and I have seen reports from several other users experiencing similar problems with the same drives. The problems are not continuous, and they seem to only happen on HD recordings. You never know when you will see them.

I have had my Freeagent Pro for over a year with no problems until recently. I am looking for a replacement now. Good luck.

So your TiVo has upgraded to v9.4x correct? And this is the first time you've had problems?

Not to question your conclusion (well, I guess it is) but what makes you think/assume the issues are due to the FAP? Can you link to the posts from the other FAP owners that are having problems due to the latest upgrade?

Upgrades are notorious for causing a certain percentages of TiVo's to go crazy or die all together. Some are fixed with a hard reboot and others need more TLC, still others just die. (Replacing the hard drive seems to be the cure.)

So far v9.4x seems to have caused at least a few people problems...people with stock TiVo's, no eSATA drives, etc. Just wondering if it might be something else (my guess) or if indeed it has something to do with the FAP.

Sorry, I cannot provide any more detailed information about how I know it is the new software. But I do. I worked with TiVo on the problems and was one of several people who helped them focus in on the FAP as the cause. TiVo finally told me to quit reporting the video issues until I removed the FAP! My point is that this is more than just TiVo not supporting the FAP or even wishing we did not use it. They believe it is a specific cause of the problems. Hope that helps, but I can't share any more info on it.

Sorry, I cannot provide any more detailed information about how I know it is the new software. But I do. I worked with TiVo on the problems and was one of several people who helped them focus in on the FAP as the cause. TiVo finally told me to quit reporting the video issues until I removed the FAP! My point is that this is more than just TiVo not supporting the FAP or even wishing we did not use it. They believe it is a specific cause of the problems. Hope that helps, but I can't share any more info on it.

Understood and thanks. So if you (or someone in your situation) were to have problems and were to remove their FAP, things should return to normal? TIA.

Understood and thanks. So if you (or someone in your situation) were to have problems and were to remove their FAP, things should return to normal? TIA.

Yes, removing the FAP should clear it all up. I have not tried this yet, as I just have too many things recorded that I am not willing to loose yet (that is the downside of adding 750GB!). I am feverishly trying to work down through the stuff and get it transfered to DVD (the recordings that play well enough) so that I can pull the external drive and test the stock S3 before going to a different eSATA unit.

In very recent testing, multiple Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750gb drives were determined to write to disk slowly enough to cause performance problems. The drive also appears to have some type of basic incompatability with the SATA controller (throws out a lot of drive status CRC errors). This could be caused by a bad or flaky cable, or even electromagnetic noise on one or two drives, but we saw it across the board. Those problems have been there since day one but may not have been particularly noticeable to the customer.

If a problem arises during startup, the external drive might be detected as unsupported or not be recognized at all. Multiple restarts would likely get around the incompatability, but YMMV.

Thanks guys
I completed an internal upgrade from a stock 250 to a 750GB unit a half hour ago. Everything went smoothly thanks to the most excellent directions by bkdtv and WinMSF. My S3 was already on 9.4. The 750GB drive I decided on was a DB35.3 ST3750840SCE. It's a trifle louder than I thought it was gonna be but no biggie. I might be hearing the fan. I"m gonna let it run for a bit & see if my husband complains.

eta; It took just under two hours to transfer the full 250GB to the 750drive. I had the drives directly connected to the SATA ports on my mobo.

Thanks guys
I completed an internal upgrade from a stock 250 to a 750GB unit a half hour ago. Everything went smoothly thanks to the most excellent directions by bkdtv and WinMSF. My S3 was already on 9.4. The 750GB drive I decided on was a DB35.3 ST3750840SCE. It's a trifle louder than I thought it was gonna be but no biggie. I might be hearing the fan. I"m gonna let it run for a bit & see if my husband complains.

eta; It took just under two hours to transfer the full 250GB to the 750drive. I had the drives directly connected to the SATA ports on my mobo.

Either 93 or 93 hours of HD
eta-actually I ment to type "93 0r 98
The only things I would add to the directions is a bit about needing a long T10 wrench & a T15. the advanced auto parts # is nice but we don't have one around here so I picked something at walmart and of course it was too short.
But as roadblocks go that was a very small one.

I got the same message last night - I am still on 9.3. I have had the FAP 750 since the day the "unnoficial" esata connection was published. (it seems like at least a year). I have not had any problems.

Does this mean that when I get 9.4 I can expect to have problems? If that is the case it seems like the upgrade causing the problem, rather than the drive.

Does this mean that when I get 9.4 I can expect to have problems? If that is the case it seems like the upgrade causing the problem, rather than the drive.

From TivoJerry's post I it sounds like (some?) FAPs have been problematic all along. I assume 9.4 itself would run just as well as 9.3, but they are using this upgrade to "make it known" there are issues with FAPs. (Presumably to cut down on possible future support calls.)

That is all speculation on my part. There seems to be lots of people posting here saying their FAPs seemingly work just fine since day 1.

I have a S3 with the dreaded FAP eSATA drive, which has been running without issue for over 6 months...

My questions are:

If I pull the drive will I just loose recordings?
This I can handle, season passes and all my setup data would be bad.

Can I still put in 'my choice' of eSata drives (yes besides the FAP)
I have a 1tb Samsung and Antec case queued up and ready to go.
I thought we lost this option a while back, but I have been out of the loop.

Is this swap a long involved process or is it in the menu like I had before?

My wife's unit with a 1tb Hitachi and Antec case received the 9.4, but of
course now she is missing some HD channels.

Can I still put in 'my choice' of eSata drives (yes besides the FAP)
I have a 1tb Samsung and Antec case queued up and ready to go.
I thought we lost this option a while back, but I have been out of the loop.

Yes. The KickStart is no longer an option, but is not needed with the menu option.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbessel

Is this swap a long involved process or is it in the menu like I had before?

Should be Plug-N-Pray (ie use the menu) on an original S3 with the original 250GB internal drive. AFAIK. (If you have upgraded the internal drive, then you must marry the drive using WinMFS).